NATIONAL
SURVEY OF BREEDING WILLOW TITS
The Willow Tit is the second fastest
declining breeding bird in Britain – only Turtle Dove is in a worst state –
and is now severely endangered.
It is not an easy species to keep tabs
on, though, and existing monitoring programmes no longer provide an up to date
picture of numbers.
To get a more accurate idea of where
Willow Tits are still found and in what numbers RSPB and
the Rare Breeding Birds Panel are launching a national survey to be carried out
during 2019 and 2020.
This involves visiting selected
tetrads (2x2km OS grid squares) on two or more occasions and playing recordings
of Willow Tit calls to see if they elicit any response.
82 such tetrads have been selected in
‘Lancashire’ (including North Merseyside), many of which have now been
allocated to surveyors. But quite a few in Merseyside (mostly in Knowsley and
St Helens) remain unallocated. These are important areas for Willow Tits and
together with neighbouring Wigan constitute a nationally important area for the
species.
In order to produce scientifically
robust results, RSPB’s survey methodology is quite precise but it is not overly
demanding.
If anyone would like to participate in
this survey please contact me and I’ll let you know what areas need to be
surveyed.
But even if you can’t commit to this
you can make an important contribution by passing on any recent or future
records of Willow Tits at any time of the year to me. To be of maximum use
these should mention dates, numbers, sites and preferably an OS grid reference
or postcode.
Steve White
County Bird Recorder for Lancashire
and North Merseyside.
Supplementary reading
https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/conservation-projects/details/204776-identifying-the-cause-of-the-willow-tit-decline
https://www.gmwildlife.org.uk/carbon_landscape/downloads/willow_tit_survey_volunteer_handbook_2018_03_07.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/groups/167649310275619/
 |
| Example of Survey form |
* Survey forms available from Steve
